Local law school advances as AG announces consultancy tender

…new registry buildings planned for Georgetown, Berbice

Attorney General (AG) and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall, on Tuesday updated that procurement for key consultancy services tied to the construction of Guyana’s first local law school will be advertised next week.
Meanwhile, the AG also shared that plans are underway to look into the construction of a new building in Georgetown to house the Deeds and Commercial Registry, while the construction of the new Deeds and Commercial Registry building in Berbice is set to begin soon, with the tender process already underway.
Nandlall spoke on these and several other matters during his weekly online programme Issues in the News. Updating on the law school, Nandlall said the project is moving closer to the construction phase.
“I am pleased to report that the construction phase will soon commence, and purchase for procurement of consultative services that include the detailed structural designs and drawings, architectural drawings, design specifications, bills of quantities, engineer estimates and the bid document and the supervision services for the construction of the school are to be published next week at the instance of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board. So, progress is being made in that direction,” Nandlall related.
Some $100 million had been earmarked earlier this year in the 2026 budget to begin construction on the Council of Legal Education (CLE)-accredited law school in Guyana.
Last year an eight-acre plot of land was identified at the southwestern section of the University of Guyana (UG) Turkeyen campus for the building. The plot has already been cleared and prepared for the construction works to commence.
When completed, the law school will not only benefit Guyanese law school students but also those from around the region.
Currently Guyanese law students are forced to attend the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad. However, only the 25 top law students from Guyana are allowed each year into the programme, despite UG’s law degree programme usually having about 40 students per year.

New buildings
Meanwhile, the AG emphasised the need for new buildings for the Deeds and Commercial Registry given how the expansion of services has made the current facilities inadequate. Nandlall stressed that the registry can no longer operate under its current conditions.
“I see some people complaining about some aspects of the service at the Deeds and Commercial Registry. That is why we are building out the infrastructure that will allow us to improve the efficiency of these institutions. At every one of the locations except the Essequibo coast, every one of the Georgetown and Berbice locations are severely cramped for space,” Nandlall explained.
“At the Georgetown operations… at both locations the operations are bursting at the seams, and we have to get more space. So, a building will have to be constructed in Georgetown in the very near future.”
Earlier this year it was noted that given the country’s rapid economic expansion, the Deeds and Commercial Registry, accordingly, has seen a significant surge in business activity, with 36,251 new businesses registered and 1516 companies incorporated in 2025.
“The volume has increased many folds when you compare to previous years. Naturally we have to expand the physical space and infrastructure. We have to expand the resource base institution if it is to cope with the expanded volume of business and if it is to discharge its functions diligently, competently and efficiently,” Nandlall noted.
Nandlall pointed out that there are ongoing efforts to digitise records, noting the scale of the task.
“These registries have containers and containers of documents, some that date back 200 years ago. We are transitioning the manual inventory and history into a digital registry, but that is a humongous undertaking. But we have to start somewhere,” Nandlall noted.
He added, “We have already begun to digitise some at the registry, and many of the operations now are electronic or digital. A lot of the records now that are being accumulated are also digital.”
He underscored the importance of physical storage, even as digitisation progresses.
“This is a document-driven institution. While we are going paperless, it’s a transitional stage. We still have volumes and volumes of paper, crucial papers. People’s titles, company documents, people’s deeds, agreements of sale, transport, powers of authority, companies’ records, and their business registration. All of that. This is the agency that is the lawful repository of all documents, and we have to find space to put them,” he noted.

Tender out
The AG also highlighted that the construction of a new Deeds and Commercial Registry building in Berbice is set to begin soon, confirming that the tender for the Berbice project is already out.
“The tender for this project has already been publicly advertised by NPTAB, and the tender is scheduled to be opened on May 12, 2026,” Nandlall related.
The new Berbice facility, he said, will be a modern five-storey structure located near the current court building.
“It is going to be located conveniently on a plot of land that is diagonally across from the Berbice High Court; that is to say, diagonally across Esplanade Road in New Amsterdam from where the court is, so there is no great inconvenience that would be occasioned by the new location; it is just across the road from where it is currently located,” Nandlall explained.
He added that the facility will include modern amenities.
“It will adequately accommodate the staff members and will have adequate storage. It will obviously be appointed with modern facilities and amenities and will have parking spaces for both staff and members of the public or users of the services. It will have a backup generator. It will also, I believe, have two living quarters, and it will have the capacity to generate electricity by solar,” Nandlall shared.